Jun 25, 2016

The United Kingdon Exits

One
of the reasons that Europe was not so successful as the US was that
each country had its own borders, currency, army, customs, rules, laws.
It was a hassle to trade or move among countries, both as a
businessman, a worker, or a tourist.

The
gradual unification of Europe has been a great success story. Many
defended borders are no more, it is peaceful, and it is just as easy to
travel from Germany to France as it is to travel from Illinois to
Indiana.

Imagine
the economic friction if we had that situation between our States in the United States. It would balkanize our economy and lives and reduce economic
vitality and increase taxation to pay for the border.

I
remember driving down a river valley on the border of Germany and
Austria. The road went back and forth across the creek, each time
crossing a border where custom agents checked our passports. It was an
absurd waste of money - congrats to the Europeans for getting rid of
this.

And
of course the huge standing armies with strongly defended borders
between each country has been greatly reduced. Saves a lot of money.

For
many years Europe has been moving towards currency, economic, and trade
common markets. It has been uneven - a number of countries including
England, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland did not join the Eurozone for
currency unification. And the UK and Ireland did not sign the Schengen
agreement and thus kept their customs and passport controls.

Europe
has been gradually increasing their integration. With the UK exit this
process begins to unravel. It will likely have negative impacts on the
UK and Europe.